News

And So It Begins…

3.13.14

As we enter what is now a completely different market than when we first penned our plan three and a half years ago, conflicting feelings of overwhelming excitement battling those of complete terror consume the better part of my psyche. It's thrilling to have persisted in creating something from nothing and have the rare opportunity to share your perspective with the world. Just thinking about it makes my spine tingle. And it was simply amazing to watch it all come together as every board was placed, every tile laid and each vessel positioned, piped, and tested. Although it was over a much longer period of time than we’d have ever imagined, we now have our functioning brewery and taproom.

But here comes the terror: it’s really just the beginning. Make no mistake, though, this terror is not rooted in fear; it’s that acute awareness you feel seconds before facing something completely new. And with each passing moment, I’m more aware that none of the time, energy, or resources invested into the front end of this project matter even slightly if we aren’t able to produce extraordinary beer, and deliver it to our beer drinking audience in a way that is more memorable or impactful than the vast majority of the other exceptional breweries attempting to do the same.

I feel like we’re about to kick open our doors at an extremely fragile time. As we see more and more trademark squabbles, national craft brewers calling each other out for targeting handles, referring to beer as children — there’s a building tension, an imminent apex, and I find myself thinking, should this be even remotely surprising? Are we not all competing for business? The answer is obviously yes, but if so, how then do we all continue to grab that “market share” I hear young brewery folk too often refer to, as if it was some infinitely supplied raw material.

The only answer that really seems to matter: expand the audience. When brewers reach new craft beer drinkers, and do so in a way that is respectful of those who truly paved the way, then we’re adding authentic value to the craft beer community. Because yes, we are all competing with each other — craft or crafty, micro or macro.

We now step lightly into this crowded scene with the same rifled focus on intention, specificity, and the urbane accessibility that’s influenced every aspect of our brewery build-out and space development along the way – and we’re damn proud of what we’ve built.

Three and a half years after we started this project we’re finally about to serve our first beers. The collection of details we’ve been obsessing over is now available for the beer drinking public’s ruthless critique. It is our hope that our beers and our culture are met with favor, but as we attempt to bridge a gap spanning from the nerdiest of beer geeks to the greenest novice, perhaps we’re foolish to assume such a goal is even achievable. Or perhaps we’ll fall right in the middle and achieve neither. Either way, it’s on and Penrose Brewing Company is open for business.

Here we share our opinion of the world's happenings - at least those we find most interesting or inspiring. You may agree with us, or you may not. Doesn't matter - it's simply our perspective.